Typically after we mention tech and security, the mind naturally jumps to cybersecurity. But equally important, especially for global companies with large, multinational organizations, is physical security — a key function at the most medium-to-large enterprises, and yet one that so far , hasn’t really done much to require advantage of recent advances in technology. Enter Base Operations, a startup founded by risk management professional Cory Siskind in 2018. Base Operations just closed their $2.2 million seed funding round and can use the cash to maximize its recent launch of a street-level threat mapping platform to be used in supporting enterprise security operations.
The funding, led by Good Growth Capital and including investors like Magma Partners, First In Capital, Gaingels and First Round Capital founder Howard Morgan, are going to be used primarily for hiring, as Base Operations looks to continue its team growth after doubling its employe base this past month. It’ll even be put to use extending and improving the company’s product and growing the startup’s global footprint. I talked to Siskind about her company’s plans on the heels of this round, also because the wider opportunity and the way her company is serving the market during a novel way.
“What we do at Base Operations is help companies keep their people operational secure with ‘Micro Intelligence,’ which is street-level threat assessments that facilitate a spread of routine security tasks within the travel security, land and provide chain security buckets,” Siskind explained. “Anything that the chief security officer would be responsible of, but not cyber — so anything that intersects with the physical world.”
Siskind has firsthand experience about the complexity and challenges that enter into enterprise security since she began her career working for global strategic risk consultancy firm Control Risks in Mexico City .due to her time within the industry, she’s keenly conscious of just how far physical and political security operations lag behind their cybersecurity counterparts. It’s an often overlooked aspect of corporate risk management, particularly since within the past it’s been something that the majority employees at North American companies only ever encounter periodically when their roles involve frequent travel. The events of the past few years have changed that, however.
“This was the last bastion of a corporation that hadn’t been optimized by a SaaS platform, basically, so there was some resistance and a few allegiance to legacy players,” Siskind told me. “However, the events of 2020 kind of turned everything on its head, and corporations realized that the safety department, and what happens within the physical world, isn’t almost compliance — it’s actually a strategic advantage to take a position in those kind of services, because it helps you maintain business continuity.”